Bank named as executor in mum's will

oddball165

My mum passed away in May this year, my dad and siblings have been trying to sort out her finances.
She has left a will with the bank,which we did get within a week of he passing as dad wanted to make we fulfilled her wishes on either cremation or burial.
We were told at the bank we would have to go to probate as mum had more than £25,000 in her own name.
The thing that is worrying us is she has named the Bank as her executor,they have not made any contact with dad since handing the will over though.
When mum and dad did the will writing at the bank it was not explained to them that by the bank being the executors they were entitled to a % of their estate.
Can anyone help me with do we have to use the bank to file probate or can we get them removed from will.
Many thanks

Tuesday_Tenor

Is / are the named executor(s)

Bank

or

Dad and bank

?

RAS

You need to ask the bank if they wish to renounce their executorship

oddball165

It is just the bank as executors

g6jns_2

oddball165 wrote: »

My mum passed away in May this year, my dad and siblings have been trying to sort out her finances.
She has left a will with the bank,which we did get within a week of he passing as dad wanted to make we fulfilled her wishes on either cremation or burial.
We were told at the bank we would have to go to probate as mum had more than £25,000 in her own name.
The thing that is worrying us is she has named the Bank as her executor,they have not made any contact with dad since handing the will over though.
When mum and dad did the will writing at the bank it was not explained to them that by the bank being the executors they were entitled to a % of their estate.
Can anyone help me with do we have to use the bank to file probate or can we get them removed from will.
Many thanks

I am sorry to say that is very unlikely that the bank did not explain the terms of the executorship and a scale of charges. Professional executor are entitled to be paid for their work. Sadly banks are the most expensive excutors and I would never recommend anyone yo use them. You may be able to persude then to renounce executorship but after this time I suspect it is too late to do so. Have you asked the bank what is happening.

oddball165

No we have not had any contact with the bank since collecting mum's will.They were the ones that informed us we would need to go to probate but did not state they would have to be involved.

Crabapple

So the original Will is now in your family's possession but you know that the Bank are named as Executors?

Your family will need to contact them and ask about Probate. I would suggest asking if they will renounce (they may well charge a fee for this if they will do it at all).

Unfortunately if they will not renounce you won't have much option. The banks used to have in-house trusts departments who dealt with such work. They may not have this now and will farm the work out to whoever they wish.

oddball165

Yes we got given the original will out of the safe box my parents held at the bank.

Lone_Northern_Lass

g6jns wrote: »

Professional executor are entitled to be paid for their work. Sadly banks are the most expensive excutors and I would never recommend anyone yo use them.

Unrelated to the OP -

What is the cheapest professional executor option?

(I don't get on with my family and ideally wouldn't want to burden friends with being executors. I have no dependents - personal effects / chattels will go to my best friend for them to do whatever they want with, estate will be split between various charities.)

Mojisola

Lone_Northern_Lass wrote: »

What is the cheapest professional executor option?

(I don't get on with my family and ideally wouldn't want to burden friends with being executors. I have no dependents - personal effects / chattels will go to my best friend for them to do whatever they want with, estate will be split between various charities.)

You could name friends as executors and make sure they understand that they can employ a professional to do the work while they keep overall control. All expenses would come out of your estate so it wouldn't cost them anything. They could then use someone they are happy with.

Alternatively, if you are leaving money to charities, you could appoint one of the charities as your executor.

oddball165

We have been to the bank and apparently was told the wrong information by the bank manager!
We only needed to go to probate if the sum held at the bank alone was over £25,000 mum had £3,000 with the bank but other bank accounts,shares and isa's with different companies that as a whole totaled a lot more than the limit.Therefore no probate required and after checking with all the other providers they do not need probate either.
Second mistake made by the bank manager was to hand over the will as they had no copy and no record of them being the executors.

After sending a copy of the will to them, The bank renounced on the will and all it has cost us is £300 for some form filling.